


Adrenaline Rush

by Fawkespryde



Series: Grounds for Murder (Feast your eyes) [4]
Category: Rooster Teeth/Achievement Hunter RPF, Sideshow - Fandom
Genre: M/M, escape the police simulator 2019, neffex is basically the ost for these two
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-02
Updated: 2019-05-02
Packaged: 2020-02-16 06:34:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,729
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18686083
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fawkespryde/pseuds/Fawkespryde
Summary: Tomato had no idea how he found him. Especially after all the precautions he went through to ensure that he was a faceless presence.Untracable.Unkillable.And yet, he had been found out and there were police stomping up the stairs to his apartment.





	Adrenaline Rush

Prompt: Dark sideshow au/ criken and tomato first meeting

Warnings: No warnings this time

***

‘They are coming!’

‘Run!’

Those text would have almost been meaningless to him. Just more empty words vomited at him from some unknown number. He couldn’t trace it which should have been a warning but it wasn’t the first time Tomato had hit a roadblock while tracking down various people by using their technology against them. It was worrying, the texts suddenly appearing on his screen with no provocation.

‘Get out now!’

He almost didn’t catch that one as he heard a noise from outside. It sounded like some sort of rhythm or beat and he turned his chair to do a full rotation in his room. He could hear it through the wall getting slowly louder and he grabbed his phone, standing up and walking out of his bedroom/office. He came out into the living room and peaked between the curtains, looking down into the streets below.

At first, he didn’t see anything. But then he caught sight of red and blue reflected off a nearby parked car. The colour drained from his face and he quickly ran into his office, accessing the camera for his neighbourhood as quickly as he could. He just hopped into a traffic camera when everything went dark. Stuff like that happened often in the area he lived but he didn’t need to be a genius to see that the timing was intentional. Especially since he had managed to catch sight of situation before the power went out. No, before the power was forcefully shut off.

They had found him alright. There was a fully armoured swat team outside his apartment complex, heavily equipped and swarming like insects to every entrance and exit. Tomato rushed into his office and without a thought grabbed a screwdriver, using it as a wedge instead of the intended tool it was. He pried the cover off the side of his computer and reached inside. It was still warm from being on earlier but he pressed on, exploring the inside by memory.

He found the things he was looking for and began forcefully snapping the pieces of ram out of the motherboard. It wouldn’t wipe everything but it would buy him some time to cover his tracks and set up shop elsewhere. He couldn’t hope to pry the motherboard out completely with the time he had and no power meant he couldn’t flash fry everything in his microwave like he always had planned. Tomato was really starting to wish he splurged that extra money he had on a portable generator. But it was too little, too late.  
He shoved the parts and swept various bits and pieces that he had been working on into a nearby backpack. His mind was racing and he did a full turn, looking around to see if he left anything out in the open. Not that it would matter in the long run. If the swat was here that meant they fully intended on grabbing him and everything in his place. He couldn’t stick around here but how was he going to get out if he was surrounded.

‘It’s too late to salvage anything. You need to get out now.’

Tomato grit his teeth and glared at the phone in his hand. Someone must think they were funny, stating the obvious to him while he’s in the middle panicking. “Yeah, no shit but how the fuck do I do that. They must have everything covered by now.”

The phone didn’t reply and he almost felt stupid for yelling at an inanimate object. Whoever was texting him must be watching the scene unfolding from the cameras as well. There was no other way they could have the means to communicate to him unless they were a hacker too. Must be a pretty damn good one too if they managed to get his phone number. The phone blipped in his hand again as he was throwing the rest of his computer into the bathtub.

‘Apartment 608. Take the fire escape to the roof and wait. Wear something dark.’ The phone helpfully supplied.

Tomato looked at the device with trepidation written on his face as he turned on the taps to the hottest he could get it. He stood up and reread that message, the water being the only sound he could hear. Here he was surrounded by cops who would shoot him on sight if he acted even the least bit suspicious and the person texting him wants him to risk his well being by breaking into another apartment and escaping onto the roof?

Now he might not be an expert but he knew that in any cases of emergencies, the last place anyone would want to be is on a roof… and yet, according to what the mysterious person was saying, he had no other choice. Well, he did had one more. Give up. Tomato grit his teeth and shook his head. There was no way that, after coming as far as he has, he was just going to give up and go quietly into the night.

So it looked like the roof was going to be his last stand. At least up there he’ll be able to choose the way he’d go down, a bullet or a plummet from ten stories. Neither were the way he ever expected would be his end but there was no way he was going to be taken alive like a bitch. He was really starting to regret moving into the city from his rural home. Out there, he would have known they were coming from miles away.

Tomato shoved the phone into his pocket and pulled on a dark hoodie, throwing the hood over his hair. He grabbed the backpack and slipped out the front door, still hearing the water running faintly in his bathroom as he snuck into the hallway. He lived on the third floor so he quickly ran up three flights till he got up to apartment 608. The door didn’t have anything personal on the front to indicate to who lived inside and he took a deep breath, hoping that it was just a little old lady that wouldn’t put up a flight when he inevitably shoved his way into her apartment. He knocked once, an urgent tap of his knuckles. His time was getting shorter the longer he spent out in the hall and his heart leaped into his throat at the sound of the buildings door get slammed open. There were heavy footsteps marching up to the third floor.

“Fuck..” He growled under his breath and contemplated kicking down the door. He reached forward and grabbed the handle, hoping to judge where the weakest part to put his boot through when the knob twisted under his palm. The adrenaline had him reeling and he didn’t question a thing, forcing his way into the apartment and closing the door behind him as the sound of his door being busted open resounded in the hallway.

Tomato locked the door behind him and fell into a hunched over stance, prepared to fight off any residence in the apartment if need be. But he didn’t see anyone. There was old furniture pressed all over the place. The kind that would feature in an 80’s sitcom. The table was set with display porcelain but the flowers set as the centrepiece was wilted and grey. In fact everything in the place was covered in a thick layer of dust. The place looked like a time capsule, undisturbed as though time had revolved around the apartment. The curtains were all drawn and Tomato had to squint through the dark, stumbling while holding a hand across his mouth as he breathed in the dust.

He banged a leg on a baby crib that was sitting innocently next to the couch and he immediately got weirded out at the sight of a plastic baby laid inside of it. Deciding not to think more on the disturbing insinuations that sight gave him, he pressed on and shifted the curtains and pulled up the blinds. Sure enough, the window was different than the ones located in his apartment. His only open halfway and they all had screens on them. This one opened all the way and was big enough for him to squeeze out.

“Why the fuck am I going up again?” He murmured, opening the window and peering out. Looking down, he realized why. Now that he was on the other side of the apartment complex, he could properly see the amount of police that were outside. Seeing them through a camera and seeing them with his own eyes were two different things and he bit back the nervousness, taking a deep breath. He allowed the adrenaline to fuel his movements as he forced himself onto the fire escape.

He could hear people below him but he directed his gaze upwards, not giving behind him a passing glance as he ran. There was no looking back, if he did, he’d feel that fear nipping at his heels. No, he had to trust in the heavy thudding in his chest. His beating heart was a constant reminder that he was alive. Tomato could hear the blood rushing to his ear as he took the steps two at a time. Finally after what felt like too much time spent climbing, his hands touched fiberglass and he knew that he made it.

Tomato pulled himself onto the roof and his jaw hung at the sight of a foreign shape. Well, it looked very much like something but he didn’t want to jump to conclusions since it was covered in a tarp. He approached the shape and ran a hand over the material. It felt hot to the touch from the beating sun overhead and he paced around it, lifting a corner to see the sleek metal craft hidden underneath. Confusion hit him at the sight and he dropped the tarp again almost afraid that this all was a fever dream. How did something so big remain hidden on top of his building? How did he not hear something like this land? How long had it been here and more importantly, who had placed it here? “What the fuck.. Is that a-”

“A helicopter? Yes.” A voice came from behind him and he spun around.

Someone sat up from their hiding place behind the air conditioner and stretched their long limbs over their head as though they hadn’t a care in the world. The man standing before him was easily over six feet but the cartoonish length of him limbs and height did little to take away from the sharp look in his eyes.

Tomato tilted his head and held up his phone for the other to see. “I assume this is you?”

The man standing before him adjusted his hands in the front pouch of his hoodie as if fiddling with something within and a second later, the phone in his hand dinged with another text. Tomato looked at the screen and huffed a small breath at the little smiley face that had been sent to him.

“Ok, so that answers that but I have so many more questions.” Tomato eyed the fire escape with trepidation, worried that their conversation would be interrupted at a moment's notice but at the same time, not caring. He had to know who this man was and why he was here, how he seemed to know so much about him and for some reason owned a helicopter. “I need to know… so much.”

The man made an incline of his head as though sizing him up and after seemingly finding what he was looking for, gave a nod. “I’ll tell you everything you need to know… but not here.”

Tomato snorted out a noise of disbelief and shook his head. He took a step back and glanced back over his shoulder, wondering if it was too late to try and leave by the fire escape. “Like hell, if you think I’m just going to get into a helicopter with you when I have no idea who the fuck you are, you have another thing coming.”

The brunette looked almost irritated at that and his brow furrowed. He glanced at his watch and made a clicking noise with his tongue. “Ok, fine. One question. Ask it now. I’m on a schedule.”

“Who are you?” Tomato felt the question fall from his lips before he could stop it and he wanted nothing more than to slap himself. He mentally chastised himself for that stupid question. There were a thousand more pressing concerns that he should have addressed and he asked the man his name of all things.

The man had pulled the tarp halfway off the top of the propellers and at his question, he turned to glance over his shoulder. “Criken, you can call me Criken.” He tugged the rest of the material off and threw it to the side to get it out of the way.

The helicopter was a gorgeous shade of red and had two seats. It didn’t look like something you buy for just a couple thousand. It was definitely expensive from the look of the luxurious leather seats and wooden dash.

“Ok Criken. Where are we going?”

The brunette ignored him and opened the door to the helicopter, sliding into the seat without acknowledging Tomato’s second question. He put a pair of headphones on and pushed the mic out of his face as he started going through the process of starting it up.

“Oh fuck. Ok ok, I get it. No more questions.” Tomato ducked his head down and came around the front window, absolutely terrified of losing his head to the slowly spinning propellers. They were picking up speed as he opened the other door and he removed his backpack, climbing in to sit next to Criken. “Jesus, you’ve made your point. I’ll ask my questions later..”

Criken seemed to smirk at that and after going through some quick checks over the dashboard, he lifted them up an inch above the roof. He rotated the helicopter and the two of them caught sight of a dozen swat members coming up the fire escape. They looked up at the helicopter and pointed

While Tomato couldn’t see their expressions through their masks, he assumed that they had to of been flabbergasted at the sight of their ‘catch of the day’ taking off into the sky with some sort of mysterious rescuer. “Holy shit, that was cutting it close.”

Criken looked over at him and pointed at the other set of headphones. Once Tomato had his on, he repeated his previous statement to get a nod in return. “I did say we were on a schedule. You’re lucky this city is on the leaderboard for having the worst military air support.”

“There’s a leaderboard for that?” Tomato rose a brow, feeling a bit queasy from being so high up and he gripped his backpack tightly, trying to focus on anything else but the ground.

Criken gave him a blinding smile, his eyes twinkling mischievously behind his glasses. “There’s a list for anything and everything. You only have to know where to look. That’s how I found you, after all.”

Tomato looked at him worried, his words made him feel uneasy and the small did very little to put his worries to rest. His expression must have said a lot because Criken’s smile died almost immediately, like he was already exhausted from that simple emotional display. Like it was a mask he switched to when it was convenient.

He swallowed heavily and glanced out the window, watching the rooftop fly by underneath them as they flew further from the city. He had no idea who he was with, what he was capable of and where they were going but if there was anything he had learned from his business, it was that life took all sorts of crazy twists and turns. This just so happened to be one of those. He had no idea where he would end up but Tomato decided as he looked out at the gorgeous skyline, that maybe this wave might be worth riding out.

He had no idea what would happen next.. And that thought exhilarated him.

***

**Author's Note:**

> I had planned to write how these two were introduced to each other at one point. But I have a habit of getting distracted and putting things off. Luckily an anon prompted me to get off my lazy butt and finally put the idea into words. So enjoy.
> 
> Thank you lovely anon for the push I needed.


End file.
